Leading scientist explains how long people can be sick with coronavirus

A leading scientist studying the coronavirus has explained how long coronavirus can stay in the body.

There are currently more than 2500 COVID-19 cases in Australia and 12 deaths.

While most of the population could have a mild disease, coronavirus has proven deadly in the elderly and vulnerable.

Singapore’s Duke-NUS Medical School Professor Dr Danielle Anderson tells Alan Jones it can take three weeks for people to recover from the disease.

“Some of the news reports about a reinfection phenomenon… I don’t believe that people are actually reinfected but perhaps the virus is staying in the body longer than three weeks and it could be that the immune system is trying to fight the virus off, and then it goes down to a very, very, low amount in the body but not completely removed.

“So it looks like the disease duration might be abit longer in some patients.”

Dr Anderson has also explained the nature of the virus and the international efforts to contain it.